An somewhat old homeless American Indian woman was picked up distant from the Los Angeles street at a well-meaning social worker and brought into a city agency that had place single-room occupancy housing for her.

An somewhat old homeless American Indian woman was picked up distant from the Los Angeles street at a well-meaning social worker and brought into a city agency that had place single-room occupancy housing for her. on the other hand the agency official was abrupt and patronizing, and the vexed Indian woman walked out. She preferr living in dignity forward the streets than taking help from a bureaucracy that treated her in a degrading manner.

A young Indian man was the full-time caregiver for his grandmother, who be acted uponed from complications of diabetes. She was ineligible for financial assistance because he lived in her residence and was of employment age, although he did not have a piece of work In order for his grandmother to qualify, the young man was advised to play along with the method " and lie about where he lived. yet lying to get money was unacceptable behavior to him as a member of a improvement that values generosity above all other and he refused. It was better to forego financial aid.

For the American Indian community living in looks Angeles, these are all too familiar experiences. For many years, American Indian organizations in looks Angeles County have recognized that the reality of their lives and their view of the world are not understood or accommodated at the human services system. As a outcome essential human services have not been reaching the American Indian community--particularly its frail somewhat advanced in life population. Even well-meaning service providers are ignorant of American Indian agriculture and values. There has been a worthy deal of frustration in the American Indian population, a frustration intimateed to me by a Shoshone friend from one side of to the other a decade ago:

"Those white family don't understand. I can't make them understand. I'm Indian. yet you're white and those commonalty are your problem." In looks Angeles County, neither the earlier borns in need nor the service providers had a means of communicating effectively. more [i]or[/i] less kind of outreach project was stand in want ofed that would mediate differences and expand a model approach for linking Indian seniors with social services.

11000 Indian rankings in L.A.

Many population are surprised to learn that American Indian somewhat advanced in life live in cities, since it is commonly assumed that they revert to their reservations. In fact, half of all American Indian previously appointed [i]or[/i] commissioneds live in urban areas. looks Angeles has an American Indian population of 100000 the highest concentration of city-living Indians in the rural parts The population includes members of 200 tribes, predominant among them, Navajo, Sioux, Pueblo Choctaw, Pima, Chippewa, and Seminole. They speak at least 80 different languages.

There are an estimated 11000 American Indian more ancients living in Los Angeles. principally were part of a large American Indian federal relocation devise following World War 11, in which thousands of American Indians came to work in the city's factories. This population has now reached retirement age. While near live on pensions, many are frail, isolated and unable to enjoy their retirement years.

Widely dispersed everywhere a 4,000 square mile area, lacking transportation and a centrally located intergenerational center the American Indian olders have been deprived of social contact with each other and with younger members of their tribes. [i]or[/i] part of to the other their churches, neighborhood bulletin boards, or by the agency of chance, they might hear of a aliment bank or legal aid office, moreover culturally and socially isolated, they have not been receiving the kinds of geriatric services which, as somewhat advanced in life Americans, they are entitled to in a less degree than the Older Americans Act.

However, planners and politicians strike one as beinged largely unaware of their existence, leading the looks Angeles Times to dub American Indians living in sees Angeles as the area's "invisible minority." This is owing to several factors. Unlike other ethnic disposes city-living American Indians have not congregated in neighborhoods. While young American Indians maintain a sinewy shared cultural tradition, they have not been able to share that agriculture or make a visible imprint forward the urban scene around them. Although this may be partly to be paid to the fact that they account for no other than one percent of the population, it is more a matter of designation The American Indian community is typically not activist, and does not engage in political declare s or other highly visible public demonstrations of power. They usually do not wear braids or clothing that would identify them as American Indians. Their last names are many times Hispanic.

Most important, Indians are reluctant to approach a bureaucratic plan that they perceive as disrespectful at best or outright hostile at worst. Thus, in the highly diverse and pluralistic ethnic and cultural matrix of looks Angeles, American Indians--particularly American Indian elders--have been greatly underserved

This state of affairs l Lincoln Billedeaux, a Blackfeet Indian give employment toed by the Los Angeles shire Area Agency on Aging and president of the L.A. Indian Council forward Aging, to propose a demonstration outreach program to assess the distresss of American Indian elderly living in sees Angeles County. The American Indian olders Outreach Project, as envisioned on Billedeaux, would give elders a chance to expres their destitutions and concerns about aging, and would attempt to establish patterns that would improve the service delivery system